Fragile wetlands should be a top priority in restoration efforts, the author writes. |
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By SEN. MARY LANDRIEU | 4/15/11 4:48 AM EDT

No state is more keenly aware than Louisiana of the delicate balance between stewardship for our environment and the responsible development of our natural resources.

It is not uncommon for a Louisiana family to have one son or daughter stationed on an oil rig and another employed as a commercial fisherman. As we commemorate Earth Day this year — and the anniversary of the worst oil spill in our nation’s history — we are reminded of how important maintaining that balance is for our nation and our working coast.

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Louisiana is home to a robust oil and gas industry that fuels a large part of our nation’s economy. To reduce our dependence on foreign oil, the U.S must develop its own natural resources. The Gulf of Mexico has an abundant supply of oil and gas. There are great benefits in extracting and developing these resources for America. But as we saw last year, there are also great risks. And these risks are almost entirely assumed by the Gulf Coast region.

Louisiana is home to 40 percent of the nation’s wetlands — wetlands that are quickly disappearing. After decades of degradation, combined with the effects of multiple high-impact hurricanes and the oil spill, our wetlands are more vulnerable than ever. If we don’t act to restore our coast now, I do not know how much longer Louisiana will have the world’s most productive and diverse coastal landscape.

With the damage the oil spill caused, finding an immediate source of revenue for coastal restoration projects has become more urgent than ever. I have been working diligently with the congressional delegations of Louisiana and other Gulf Coast states to make sure at least 80 percent of the civil and criminal penalties from BP go to the Gulf’s coastal restoration efforts.

Long before the BP spill, securing a dedicated source of funding to stabilize and strengthen our fragile coastline was one of my highest legislative priorities.

In 2006, then-Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and I worked to establish the Domenici-Landrieu Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act. It dedicates 37.5 percent of all new offshore oil and gas revenues to coastal protection and restoration in the four Gulf Coast energy-producing states — Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi and Alabama.

This dedicated revenue stream, however, is not set to begin until 2017. Our coast needs help now.

Consider these alarming statistics: There are more than 7,000 miles of tidal shoreline in Louisiana, more than twice the distance between Miami and Seattle. That rich delta is eroding at the rate of 25 to 35 square miles of wetlands every year — the equivalent of a football field is lost every 38 minutes. More than 1.4 million people live along the Gulf Coast — more than Washington and San Francisco combined.

We need an immediate and dedicated revenue stream for restoration of the coast. Decades of underinvestment and mismanagement have turned the mighty Mississippi Delta into one of the nation’s biggest ecological challenges.

The oil spill only exacerbated damage already done to the vulnerable wetlands. The weakened marsh allows salt water to penetrate further, killing vegetation and destroying habitat deep within the wetlands. Once vegetation dies, the ocean’s natural eroding forces quickly churn the soil into open water, further destroying what is left of Louisiana’s wetlands.

Wetlands are the least understood element of any given eco system. And their ability to become a natural buffer and filter within these systems is still misunderstood.

Readers need to know that this is not simply a Louisiana problem. Any large body of water and its related estuaries are also linked through wetlands. When wetlands give way to development the health of the watershed is lost.

Consider what has been going on within the Chesapeake Bay. The run-off from cities and towns, (via storm sewers,) as well as the many farms within that watershed has nearly killed the Bay. The only way to save the Chesapeake is to re-create its wetlands system.

Landrieu is right, but her thesis should be extended to all large watersheds.

Landrieu is right, but her thesis should be extended to all large watersheds

I worked in a business subject to inspection by a state environmental regulatory agency, so I am not making this up. If you have a small sump or just a low area in your backyard, that is tecnically considered to be a wetland.

Better order a dumptruck of clay to your place, or the state or federal environmental Taliban may pay you a very painful visit.